Unique benefits of this plan (that few, if any, other plans have):-Sessions ccategorised as A, B, and C sessions to help you decide which workout to skip if life gets in the way-In addition to tips for the actual workouts, the plan contains tips on what your focus points should be on a weekly level, what the purpose of each week is, and tips on planning your race, how to stay healthy and injury-free, and more. -Plenty of links and additional resources. Not sure how to sight in open water swimming? No problem, this plan links to the best instructional video on the topic, and the same goes for other topics like foam-rolling, etc.

This plan will help intermediate triathletes race their fastest Olympic distance triathlon ever in 12 weeks. The structured and specific progression of the workouts in the plan will see to that. If you typically finish between the top-20% and top-75% of your age-group this plan will suit you well.

The plan is simple and easy-to-follow. It is based on power for running and cycling. You don't need any prior knowledge about structured training endurance sports to be able to follow it. Everything is clearly explained in the plan.

There is on average 8 hours of training per week, over 6-8 workouts. The lightest week is 5 hours, and the hardest has 10 hours of training.

This plan is also available as versions based on bike heart rate instead of power and based on running pace instead of power to guide intensity. See https://www.trainingpeaks.com/coach/mikael-eriksson.

Sample Day 1

1:00:00

70.6TSS

20-minute Time Trial - Establish Training Zones (Power)

Do the test on an indoor trainer or outside with no interruptions for traffic and ideally as flat as possible. Wear a heart rate monitor.

20-minute Time TrialHit lap button on your watch and ride for 20 min as hard and fast as you can sustain. Don't go out too hard, but make sure that you've given it your 100% at the end of the test. After 20 min, hit the lap button again. Use manual lapping only on your watch (not automatic 1k laps or similar) so the entire time trial is in one single lap.

Cool-down10 minutes very easy spin.

Sample Day 2

0:45:00

1300m

50TSS

CSS-test (Critical Swim Speed)

The CSS test involves two time trial swims - a 400m and a 200m. Before attempting these swims perform a thorough warmup that will get you ready for the time trial, but that won't make you too tired to perform the time trials optimally.

Warm-up-300 very easy swim-4 x 50 build / 20 sec

CSS-test-Do the 400 m time trial-Recover completely for 10-15 minutes with a fair bit of rest and a few laps of very easy swimming-Do the 200 m time trial

Cool-down-200m mixed strokes

Sample Day 4

0:45:00

59.6TSS

20 min Time Trial - Establish training zones (Power, pace and HR)

Use a flat course that you can repeat this test on at a later date. Wear your, power meter, heart rate monitor and GPS-watch.

20 min Time TrialHit lap button on your watch and run for 20 minutes as fast as you can. Be careful not to go off too fast. After 20 minutes, hit the lap button again. Use manual lapping only on your watch so the entire time trial is in one single lap.

MORE INFORMATION
Warm-up
The warm-up today is technique focused, with some sprints to get you ready for the speed set. Choose a drill (or 2 at most) based on your weaknesses from the list below.

B3 = breathe every three strokes
B5 = breathe every five strokes

Speed set
While it is important that you give a 100% effort in these sprints, don't forget about technique. Your aim is to swim these sprints as FAST as possible, not waste as much energy as possible just to feel your muscles burn.

Pull set
-Swim with ankle strap (and pull buoy only if you really need it) https://youtu.be/0prPd6gjQqc

DRILLS:
Kick
-Kicking face down (with or without snorkel, with or without kickboard) https://youtu.be/K4gXjneFXuI?t=209

MORE INFORMATION:
Warm up:
-Don't make yourself tired during the warm up by swimming it too hard. Save all hard strokes for the main set. In today's warm up we focus on breathing and on stroke mechanics through the doggy paddle and front scull drills. Be present and focused in the drills, and take them with you into the normal swim segments.

-“Builds” are gradual accelerations where you start an interval slowly, but then increase your pace throughout the interval and end it fast. You can split the build into four quarters: slow, moderate minus, moderate plus, fast.

Main set:
Keep a consistent pace, the fastest sustainable pace that you can hold. Likely, this is right around your CSS-pace, so don't start any harder than that, even though it will feel easy the first few reps.

Pull set:
Snorkel is recommended here, so you can really focus on stroke mechanics and improve your technique without having to worry about breathing.

Mikael Eriksson - Founder of Scientific Triathlon, Podcaster at That Triathlon Show

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Scientific Triathlon

With all the athletes I coach, I have three goals:

-Improve the athlete's performance
-Increase the motivation and enjoyment the athlete gets from the sport
-Provide 100% personalized feedback, mentoring and support. Essentially, teach my athletes to be able to self-coach, should they so desire.

I have coached complete beginners to finish their first sprint and Olympic triathlons, and helped intermediate/advanced athletes qualify for World Championships and reach age group wins and podiums.